1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air-conditioning system for connecting a protocol converter to a central controller capable of centrally controlling one or more airconditioners interconnected over a communication network, and more particularly to an air-conditioning system for controlling a protocol converter to communicate with an airconditioner using a first communication standard, and controlling the protocol converter to communicate with a central controller using a second communication standard, such that mutual signal communication is made available using a protocol conversion process.
The protocol converter of the present invention scans, in real time, connection states of a plurality of airconditioners, and transmits the scanned result to the central controller, such that the central controller can automatically recognize airconditioners currently connected to the communication network, resulting in implementation of more correct integrated-control operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the increasing demands of users who desire to use airconditioners at any location, there has recently been developed a system for controlling a plurality of indoor units installed at many places, for example, individual rooms of a house and individual offices of a building, etc.
The indoor units are classified into a single-type airconditioning system and a multi-airconditioning system according to a connection method between the indoor units and an outdoor unit.
The single-type airconditioning system includes indoor units installed in individual rooms, and outdoor units connected to the indoor units on one to one basis. The multi-airconditioning system includes a plurality of indoor units installed in individual rooms and a small number of outdoor units less than the indoor units. One outdoor unit is shared with a predetermined number of indoor units. It should be noted that the single-type airconditioning system and the multi-airconditioning system will hereinafter be generally called an airconditioning system for the convenience of description.
A user of the aforementioned airconditioning system enters a control command in the airconditioning system using a key entry unit installed in an indoor unit, a microprocessor contained in the indoor unit connected to the key entry unit generates a control signal in response to the control command to control operations of the airconditioning system, resuling in indoor cooling implementation.
Needless to say, if the outdoor unit adapted for the airconditioning system is configured in the form of a heat pump capable of switching the direction of refrigerant circulation, an indoor heating function can also be made available.
If unexpected erroneous operations occur in either the indoor unit or the outdoor unit contained in the airconditioning system, a system administrator or manager must directly access individual airconditioners 10, and must enter control commands for system repair/maintenance services in all the airconditioners 10, as shown in FIG. 1.
Particularly, public buildings such as apartments passively administrate or manage their airconditioning systems, such that they unavoidably require a large number of managers or superintendents and high management costs, resulting in cost inefficiency and low use efficiency of the airconditioning system.
In order to solve the aforementioned problems, a central controller for centrally controlling the aforementioned airconditioning system is connected to the airconditioning system, such that it can control individual operations of a plurality of airconditioners and can also monitor individual states of the airconditioners.
However, the central controller is not directly connected to the airconditioning system, and is indirectly connected to the airconditioning system via a protocol converter and a local controller. In this case, the protocol converter converts a communication standard of a signal communicated between the central controller and the airconditioning system into another communication standard, the local controller controls a prescribed group comprised of the aforementioned airconditioning system, and the protocol converter and the local controller may each be considered to be an intermediate controller.
Therefore, if unexpected network errors occur in the intermediate controller such as either the protocol converter or the local controller, reliability of the signal communicated between the central controller and the airconditioning system is unavoidably deteriorated, such that an erroneous operation control function may be unexpectedly implemented.
In this case, provided that the central controller must be reset or both the central controller and the airconditioning system connected to the communication network must be reset simultaneously, a communication mode between the central controller and the airconditioning system can normally be established.
Furthermore, if the conventional airconditioning system includes a newly-connected or reconnected airconditioner, an administrator or manager must passively assign an ID (Identifier) to the newly-connected or reconnected airconditioner, and must re-enter the assigned ID in the central controller to recognize a network of the airconditioner, resulting in the occurrence of troublesome and inefficient tasks of the administrator or manager.